Police commissioner refuses to reveal whether he signed anti-Occupy petition
Police officers are "not encouraged" to take part in Sunday's anti-Occupy Central march, the city's police commissioner says.
Police officers are "not encouraged" to take part in Sunday's anti-Occupy Central march, the city's police commissioner says.
"Police officers are also Hong Kong citizens and they have the same civil rights as other citizens," said Andy Tsang Wai-hung. "So, when they are off-duty and want to sign up to show support for a campaign that is against unlawful behaviour, I do not see that it breaches any of our regulations [regarding political neutrality]."
But he was quick to add: "As to whether police officers should take part in a march, our position is that we do not encourage [them to do so]."
Despite giving his approval for officers to sign an anti-Occupy petition - organised by Beijing-loyalist coalition the Alliance for Peace and Democracy - Tsang remained tight-lipped on whether he had signed the petition himself. "It is not an important issue," he said.
Sunday's rally is against the Occupy Central movement, in which democracy supporters plan to mobilise 10,000 people to block streets in Central if Beijing does not allow what they consider "genuine" universal suffrage for the 2017 chief executive poll.
Planned by the alliance, Sunday's march is part of a series of activities to mark the end of its month-long signature campaign.
The alliance claimed to have collected more than 1.2 million signatures by Sunday.
About 80,000 people are expected to march from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to Chater Garden in Central, according to the alliance.
Alliance spokesman Robert Chow Yung said two teams of researchers from the University of Hong Kong, led by Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu and Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai, would help measure attendance at the march.
"It is not a numbers game. There is no need for us to tell lies or inflate the turnout. We hope to build up our credibility," said Chow, in a veiled criticism of the organisers of the pro-democracy march on July 1, who were accused of heavily inflating the headcount.
The Civil Human Rights Front claimed there were 510,000 people marching on July 1. Police said there were 98,600. Dr Chung's team put the estimate at between 154,000 and 172,000.
Chow also urged participants to keep calm and peaceful, despite possible provocation from opponents.
Additional reporting by Peter So
